Attention Wal-Mart Workers: Please Do Not Report Injuries

Al Paulson

| May 4, 2001

Attention Wal-Mart Workers: Please Do Not Report
Injuries

Consider this scenario: You get a job with America's largest
private employer. You go to work in the fabric department of a huge
red, white, and blue building. Things go well for five months. Then
suddenly, you slip on some spilled dog food, fall backward, and hit
your head on the corner of a pallet. You experience memory loss and
suffer seizures. You're out of work for several months, undergoing
physical therapy and rehab.

In compliance with law, your all-American employer pays your
medical bills and partial wages for your time out of work. But when
you leave the company and the symptoms continue, your former
employer refuses to honor your insurance claims and begins an
investigation that concludes your problems are caused by
depression.

This tragic tale is one of several cited in Mark D. Fefer's
article in the Seattle Weekly about injured employees
who, while attempting to claim compensation, run into a brick Wal
-- Wal-Mart that is. Yes, the largest employer in the U.S. outside
of the government stands accused of not paying worker's
compensation insurance to its fallen worker-bees.

Fefer writes: 'In Washington, most employers pay premiums into a
state fund and Labor and Industries pays out the claims. However,
employers like Wal-Mart, Boeing, Microsoft, and others who have at
least $5 million in assets are allowed to manage their own claims
and pay them directly out-of-pocket. Big companies prefer this
'self-insurance' method since it gives them much greater control
over their costs.'

Find out why the Washington state Department of Labor and
Industries wants to take away North America's biggest retailer's
right to self-insure.--Al PaulsonGo there>>